A federal judge has ordered the general counsel of a Chinese corporation to come to the United States for a deposition in a patent case, despite the attorney's fear he will be arrested upon entering the country.

Southern District Judge Lewis Kaplan instructed attorney Guo Xiaoming of the China-based ZTE Corporation to be deposed in Kaplan's courtroom in Vringo v. ZTE Corporation, 14-cv-4988.

Guo's attorneys at Clifford Chance US had asked Kaplan for “mercy” and to at least allow his deposition to take place outside of the United States because he feared a possible arrest by U.S. authorities in a criminal investigation into a violation of the embargo against the Iranian regime.